Forward planning for students

With the pressure of exams, essays, eking every last drop out of your savings and of course, having a good time, it can be difficult for students to work out where they’re going to go when it finally comes to leaving university. The question: ‘what are you doing next year?’ has to be the most frequently asked to third years and by the end of it, simply not having an answer begins to feel like a failure in itself.

One of the problems that students face (even if they know what it is that they want to do with their lives) is managing to find a job in that particular sector. In theory having a degree should help them, after all, where’s the incentive to go to University if you don’t get any advantage for it? But sometimes it may not seem that way.

University is a great place to get practical skills that employers really look for, the plethora of societies and student groups means you can get unique experiences. This is particularly true when it comes to going into a creative job, for all that it’s often derided, things like experience with student television can be really useful when it comes to getting a job.

Another thing to consider is that there are hundreds of thousands of internships out there to students, either through external sources or through links within individual universities. Sometimes it’s difficult to think of these things at the time, but it’s much easier to get an internship if you’re still a student than if you’ve just left.

For undergrads it may be worth considering taking an MA particularly if you want to go into journalism or broadcasting, whilst it’s possible to get jobs direct, the competition for places is fierce and getting an MA can be a huge help. Of course, a Masters’ is expensive, but banks like Santander are offering good rate loans, but you should only do it if you’re certain that want to.

The final thing to remember the next time (or even the first time) you get asked the ‘what are you going to do next year?’ question is that you don’t have to have a response. If you don’t, there’s no point coming up with a plan on the spot and then trying to stick with it, make something creative up instead. You don’t need to know where you’re going when you leave University, but if you know where you want to go, that’s a good step.

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